-The Hindu “If Shyam Benegal [film director] can come up with a toilet version of Manthan[movie that focused on milk cooperatives] we can break a certain social barrier” towards solving a problematic issue like sanitation, felt Jairam Ramesh, Union Minister of Rural Development. Launching the Asia-Pacific Millennium Development Goals report of the U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific, Mr. Ramesh recalled howManthan that featured Smita Patil had changed women's...

If India is an aspiring society, education is perhaps the quickest vehicle of social Mobility. Right to Education (RTE) is a supplyside intervention by the government that will make education cheaper and, in the process, every child will get a chance to be educated. But an approach that focuses on availability of schools, getting children to the classroom and getting them taught by reasonably well-trained teachers is not enough. Retention...

-The Indian Express   The Unique Identification Authority (UIDAI) has begun two-pilot projects that would allow public sector oil marketers to make LPG transfers as well as getting Mobile connectivity easier and transparent for consumers, UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani said.   "We are running a pilot programme in Mysore using the Aadhar platform for giving LPG connections. One could get an LPG connection through the use of an Aadhar number. Similarly, in Hyderabad, this...

In a macabre act of caste violence, a Dalit youth in Saniyana village was attacked with a sharp-edged weapon and had his arm nearly chopped off for drinking water from an earthen pot belonging to an upper caste family. While doctors have stitched up his arm, the police arrested one Rajender of Daulatpur village and booked him under SC/ST Act. Police sources said that Pappu first inquired about the caste of the...

The data show that rural families simply cannot subsist on farm incomes alone There must be a bit of Gandhi in all of us because often our idea of India ultimately boils down to the kisan as the standard bearer of the lakhs of villages that comprise India. Perhaps that is why I tend to look for the signs of transformation in the lives of Indian farmers. The changes in...